The relationship between transformational leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between the transformational leadership (TL) style of officers and their followers’ organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in a South African military environment. TL was measured by means of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Form 5X) and OCB by means of the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale (OCBS). A sample of 300 followers was identified at a military unit in the South African Army and the participants were requested to complete the two questionnaires. The MLQ produced a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.91 and the OCBS a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.79, which were both statistically significant and acceptable. The main hypothesis of the empirical study was accepted, which predicted a significant relationship between TL and OCB (r = 0.412, significant at the 0.001 level). The hypotheses predicting a significant relationship between TL the five sub-dimensions of OCB produced mixed results. These results are as follows; there was no significant relationship between TL and Civic Virtue (r = 0.180), between TL and Sportsmanship (r = 0.132) and between TL and Courtesy (r = 0.207). Additionally, the hypotheses predicting a significant relationship between TL and Altruism (r = 0.499) and between TL and Conscientiousness (r = 0.315) were accepted.